The Rough Guide to OperaThe Rough Guide to Opera is a handbook on the most thrilling of art forms, spanning four hundred years of music drama. Features include: lively biographical sketches of some 150 composers, from Claudio Monteverdi to Poul Ruders, detailing the main events of their careers and revealing their social and musical context; entertaining accounts of hundreds of operas, both the famous and neglected, each with a clear synopsis and a lively essay; CD reviews, covering the latest digital recordings as well as dozens of classic historical sets; and a who's who of the finest singers and conductors on record, from historical figures like Caruso, Callas and Toscanini to present-day stars like Bryn Terfel, Renee Fleming and Daniel Barenboim. |
Contents
Baroque Opera | 35 |
Dario | 41 |
Les Indes galantes | 48 |
Pimpinone | 54 |
Tamerlano | 60 |
Serse | 66 |
Gluck to Mozart | 75 |
Alceste | 81 |
Ernst Theodor Amadeus Hoffmann | 145 |
Giuseppe Verdi | 209 |
Ambroise Thomas | 326 |
Camille SaintSaëns | 343 |
Chapter Seven The Era of Modernism | 411 |
Viktor Ullmann | 474 |
586 | 537 |
Salvatore Sciarrino | 553 |
Common terms and phrases
aria arrives audience baritone Bayreuth beautiful bel canto Berlin Berlioz Callas Carlo cast celebrated character Chorus and Orchestra colour comic complete composer composer's conducted conductor dance daughter death Decca Deutsche Grammophon Donizetti dramatic duet emotional ensemble father Faust final finest French German Giovanni Giuseppe GIUSEPPE VERDI Gluck Handel Janáček Jenůfa killed king La Scala later leave Libretto live recording lovers lyrical mance Manon marry melodies Monteverdi Mozart notably Opera Chorus opera house opera seria Otello outstanding Paris passion performance Philharmonic Orchestra play premiere production Puccini Recordings overview Richard Strauss RICHARD WAGNER Rossini Russian Scala scene Schoenberg score singers singing song soprano sound stage Strauss studio style success sung Symphony Orchestra Synopsis Act Tannhäuser tells tenor theatre theatrical tion title role tone Tristan Turandot Verdi's verismo Vienna Philharmonic Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra Vienna State Opera vocal voice Wagner wife Wozzeck writing written wrote